Vietnam’s aquatic products have gained the favour of Australian consumers, Secretary of the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment Andrew Metcalfe told a workshop on October 1.

The US is Vietnam’s leading agricultural importer, and Vietnam is also a big buyer of US farm produce

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Up to now, after a long period of being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the epidemic situation in Ho Chi Minh City as well as some provinces in the Mekong Delta region is currently under better control. Therefore, businesses in general and companies in the seafood industry in particular are accelerating the post-COVID-19 recovery process.

Vietnam will need to invest about VND313 trillion (US$13.7 billion) in its seaport system by 2030, which will be mobilised mainly from non-budget sources, according to the master plan on the development of Vietnam’s seaport system in the 2021-2030 period with a vision to 2050.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Although Vietnam's seafood exports to the EU in August 2021 decreased by nearly 31%, there are still some important markets that maintain positive growth this month such as Spain and Portugal with the main contribution of clam exports.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) The 4th Covid wave broke out strongly in Ho Chi Minh City and 18 provinces and cities - key seafood processing and export areas of Vietnam, causing a sharp drop in export turnover to many major markets in August 2021. However, in this dark picture at this stressful Covid period, there are still small bright spots in some niche markets such as Mexico and many others.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Accumulated in the first 8 months of 2021, Vietnam's seafood exports reached nearly $5.6 billion, still increasing by about 7% thanks to high export results in the first 7 months of the year. In which, shrimp exports increased by 6.4% to 2.45 billion USD, pangasius exports reached 993 million USD, up 8.8%, tuna exports grew 12%, cephalopod and other fish exports increased by 4-5 %.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) After more than a month of operation in the context of social distancing, seafood export results in August decreased by 27% compared to the same period last year, reaching about 588 million USD.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) By the end of July 2021, Soc Trang province is leading in seafood export with US$570 million, accounting for 11.3% of Vietnam's total turnover. In which, shrimp exports accounted for 94% with 535 million USD, the rest were fish cakes, surimi, squid, octopus and other mollusks.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) Along with pangasius and brackish water shrimp, which have been promoted for export, many aquatic species that are farmed in fresh water and in the sea in the Mekong Delta such as tilapia, red tilapia, giant freshwater prawn, eel , frogs, clams, crabs... are purchased, processed and exported by some enterprises. The potential and opportunity to promote the export of these aquatic products is still great if there is a good connection between farmers and businesses.

Over the years, the Vietnamese seafood processing industry has quickly grasped the trend of integration, effectively exploited the advantages from free trade agreements (FTAs) and gradually asserted itself as one of the key export industries of the country.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) According to customs statistics, by the end of July 2021, Vietnam's seafood exports reached nearly 5 billion USD, up 13% over the same period last year. Particularly in July 2021, seafood export turnover increased by 7.5% to nearly 854 million USD, of which exports to the US and EU markets increased sharply, to CPTPP countries and South Korea increased slightly, only to China fell deeply by 20%. In the first 7 months of the year, exports to the US still maintained the highest growth rate of 36%, to the EU increased by 19%, the CPTPP increased by 10%, while exports to China decreased by over 10%.

The growth of processed seafood output in Vietnam will reach over 6 percent a year by 2030 under a national seafood processing development strategy for 2021-2030 which has been approved by the Prime Minister.

Many businesses from Guangzhou city of China have shown their interest in importing Vietnamese aquatic products, according to Le Hoang Tai, Vice Director of the Vietnam Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

(seafood.vasep.com.vn) In the first half of 2021, Vietnam's seafood production and export continued to be affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, which was still tense in many countries around the world and had a strong outbreak in the country. However, in the midst of difficulties, seafood enterprises have made efforts and flexibility to stabilize production, maintain supply, and take advantage of opportunities of markets to boost their sales abroad.